Carnival
by ForbiddenBeauty
Summary: - Sequel to Be My Valentine? - A question was asked and it might be answered at the Carnival, but is Draco ready to hear the answer?


**A/N*** Here we have the sequel to **Be my Valentine?** (which is a sequel to **Happy Halloween**), only a decade later! I feel like I should have posted it all in one story, but I did not know it would this long. We are sticking to the holidays and this time it is the carnival associated with Ash Wednesday and Easter. I hope you will like it.

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The past few months, ever since Halloween, Draco had been beside himself, because of the haunting thoughts he had had. It had been difficult to focus and do his work properly. Ever since learning of Hermione's secret he had not been able to get her out of his head and he soon found himself watching her. In fact by Christmas he had grown custom to looking for her and the brown eyes that haunted his dreams, whenever they had classes together.

Something was drawing him to her, but he kept his distance completely, because he had no idea how the reaction would be, on any level. Had this happened earlier, before the war, he would never had as much as entertained the thought, but things were different now (at least things were not as before). The possible outcomes were more unknown. Draco did not like the unknown. He liked to be in control and not be surprised, so he was carefully when it came to Hermione Granger and the subject of.

However, that changed on Valentine's Day when he, for the first time in months, approached Hermione. To see the tears forming in class and then seeing them up close, when he had made her bump into him in the corridor, had been too much. It tore at him to see her so sad, so he had left the note for her in the library as soon as he had seen her animagus form that evening, and left the aisle right away.

He had wanted to leave it at that and wait for her to approach him then, but hearing her footsteps, then gasp at his note, made him stop in this tracks. He turned back around and went back to the aisle. There she was, with her back to him, just a few steps away. He tried to convince himself that it was for self-preservation and that if she was has to humiliate him, he would rather have it done sooner than later. In all actuality, he was once again drawn in and felt himself powerless to do anything else at that moment.

It did not take long for Hermione to feel his presence and turn around to face him. Her face was unreadable and it almost gave Draco hope, but he cleansed it soon. _Hope of what?_ He thought, convincing himself that he did not know. However, it drew him in still and he carefully took a step closer; waiting for a reaction, most likely a withdrawal on her part. To his surprise, she did not move. She merely watched him, probably wondering what he was going to do next.

He suddenly felt daring and stepped right up into her personal space. There was now less than a foot between them and Hermione was looking up into his eyes. He felt exposed by her very gaze. He gently took his note from her hand and brought it up between them.

"So?" he asked.

Her eyes were now on the note and the words facing her. She brought her hand up to the writing, her fingers trading the letters and then finally resting on his hand bringing them a bit lower between them. Their eyes locked again.

"How can-…?" she started to say, but stopped when her name was called from the main entrance to the library followed by a shushing by Madam Pince.

She did not respond to the calling, but kept her eyes firmly on him. Draco saw an opportunity and took it. He turned his hand over and with the note between them, intertwined their fingers. When she gripped his hand back, as a sign of accept, he took her along further into the library away from whoever had called after her.

Things certainly changed that day. Draco would see Hermione every day since then, after or in-between classes, where they would talk about anything and everything. They grew closer with each day and since they had been no hostility between them months before, none questioned the quiet between them. In public they acted indifferent and rarely saw each other. However, in private Draco found it increasingly difficult to keep his composure. The thoughts of Hermione he had before were now accompanied with her being in his proximity every day.

After about three weeks of this, Hogwarts was throwing a Carnival in the Muggle way of celebrating Ash Wednesday; to prepare for the fasting in Lent. As it is with carnivals, people would wear masks and dress up in colourful outfits. It made for the perfect opportunity to not have a date with you, as everyone would be masked. This gave Draco an idea.

"What do you say to meeting up at the carnival?" he ask Hermione a few days before the event in question as they were the last students to leave the classroom that day (as they always were).

"Are you suggesting that I tell you what I am going to wear? You know that the whole point of a carnival is to not know who your fellow party goers are, right?" she said matter-of-factly, but with a small smile.

"What fun would that be?" he responded and then stopped in his track in the middle of the doorway and turned to face her. She was now blocked in and had not been able to stop quickly enough, so there was little space left between them. The both paused for a moment.

Then he grabbed her hand and intertwined their fingers, as she took a small step closer to him. Everyone would be on their way to the Great Hall at that time, so there was very little danger of them being spotted. "I would find it more fun to spend the evening with you" he said quietly.

He could see that she was thinking for a while before she responded with "Well, I think you will be able to find me. I have not gotten rid of you yet" a blush was slowly showing on her face and it made Draco feeling daring once again. He brought his other hand up to her face and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and his hand rested there for a moment. He dared not move further than that and drop his hand again, as he stepped aside for her to pass through the door.

"I will look forward to it" he said as they parted ways, each to their own dorms. Draco wondered to himself: _Does her cheek feel cold now, like my hand?_

Before long it was the eve of the carnival and Draco had let his friends go on ahead of him, as they wanted to go early. He got dressed after the left, so it would be more difficult for them to guess what he was wearing. He hardly knew what any of them where wearing, but he would rather be safe than sorry.

Shortly after he entered the Great Hall wearing his Wampus cat mask and chest of the house of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in golden colours, he hurried off to the side of the room. He did not want too much attention. The mask hid the top part of his face and he had coloured his hair to a light brownish colour to match the mask. His garments were a mix of patches of dark golden fur and a regular suit and he had enchanted an extra pair of arms as an illusion to his sides to match the Wampus cat.

The Great Hall was as colourful as ever with the ceiling having constant low light fireworks going on. In the middle that was a major dance floor where the four long tables used to be. On the left side there was a stage with a band playing. In the back and off to the right there was entertainment and attraction stations of various activities. Draco was studying these as he got an eerie feeling that someone was watching him intensely. Instead, he began scanning the opposite side of the room. Then he spotted the cause of the feeling and traced it to one girl across the room watching him. It was the eyes that caught his attention; they were golden and not quite human like.

Draco could not understand how he had not seen it earlier; she was dressed as a Kneazle, much like that pet of hers. Her costume was so well made that he suspected it might be part of her animagus form, if that was even possible.

He slightly angled his head to the left and carefully gestured the same with his hand, and when she nodded and got up, he started to move while still watching her ever so often. It felt like forever, before he reached the end of the dance floor, the furthest away from the entrance, in an alcove between two of the attraction stations. He spotted Hermione first and before she had spotted him, he came up behind her and whispered in her ear:

"Isn't this more fun?"

She turned around instantly and greeted him with one of her bright smiles, which he returned. "Well, so far we are just doing what we always do" she responded with laugh and wink.

Before Draco could respond there was a song change and a slow song came on and the light dimmed a bit. This prompted an idea in Draco's mind and he gestured to the dance floor.

"We could dance" he said and waited for her to take his hand.

Hermione looked to the dance floor and was silence for a moment, and then asked "Are you sure?"

"Aren't you?" he asked somewhat nervously, afraid he had crossed a line.

"Yes" she simply said and took his hand in hers.

He led them to the dance floor, closer to the middle, turned to face Hermione and stopped for a moment. He did not understand why he was so hesitant. He was always confident of what he was doing, he was a Malfoy. Luckily, before he could give it more thought, Hermione had stepped closer and put her hands behind his neck. He followed suit and put his hand at her hips.

They did not speak, but so much was being said between them anyway. The song was coming to an end way too soon for Draco's taste, as he did not want to let go just yet. As the final verse of the song was playing he pulled Hermione to him, so their bodies was touching, and he heard her sharp intake of breath in surprise. He looked at her lips briefly and wondered what they felt like against his own.

"Draco?" he heard her say and it made him tighten his hold on her. Hearing her say his first name was not something that happened often. If it was because of habit or something else, he did not know, but neither had in fact referred to the other by name in private often. He liked how it sounded at that moment and so he ever so slowly leant towards her. He could feel her leaning up towards him, but before they could meet in the middle Draco heard his name mentioned somewhere behind Hermione.

"Is that Malfoy?"

"I think so. Do you know who he is with?"

It stopped him in his track and gently kept Hermione was reaching further up. It took all he had to stop what they were about to do, but he had to. She did not fight it, and Draco guessed that she had heard the conversation too, because she did not question it. She merely looked at him with a touch of sadness in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I-… I-…" Draco said but could not finish. He did not know how. Instead he let go of her hips and gently took her hands from behind his neck, kissed one and let go of that too. He turned to go to the entrance, but before he had turned half way around, Hermione caught his hand and pulled him back. She reached up and kissed him on the cheek and whispered in his ear:

"I know"

He gave her hand a squeeze and then they parted ways. Her in the middle of the dance floor clapping at the band finishing the song, and him exiting the Great Hall with a feeling of regret in the pit of his stomach.

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**A/N*** So there we are, what did you think? I know it has been some time since **Be My Valentine?** was posted, but this project of my have solely been driven by plot bunnies and there have been few of them as you can see. My OC has had more bunnies come by during this time. A lot can happen over a decade.  
However, this time around there was a big bunny that came by and I am playing to continue this with at least another story/chapter (I really should compile these together sometime in the future).  
I hope you will leave me a review and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading so far!


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